Perhaps in an attempt to bring warmer weather our way, Rambert Dance Company's Spring 2003 Tour gets underway on 12th February and continues through to the end of May.

We are delighted to be working with Rambert again and this this is where we will post all the latest news and newspaper coverage. We also hope to get comments from dance fans around the country and would love to have your feedback. See the next posting for details of what you need to do.

Among the tour highlights are new commissions:

21

Rambert dancer and choreographer Rafael Bonachela collaborates with Kylie Minogue's creative team to produce a work that explores pure physical expression.

See 21 in Mold (9 - 12 April) and London (20 - 24 May).

Living Toys

Receiving its world première, Karole Armitage's first creation for Rambert, Living Toys transports us into that precarious and surreal state where dreams and consciousness merge.

Inspired by Thomas Adès’s dark and somewhat sinister score, this large-scale dance work promises to be a sensual and physically virtuosic spectacle. The ballet will be further enhanced by the live performance of the score by Rambert’s Associate Orchestra, London Musici.

Now it's your turn. We will be delighted if you want to post a comment about the Spring Tour or anything else to do with Rambert.

To post a comment you will need to register, which is easy and free. Click here and follow the steps to register, including agreeing to our Rules, Policies and Disclaimers. You must give a valid e-mail address.

When you have registered, you will be sent a password by e-mail, which enables you to log in. Then to make a posting, you need to click on the "Post Reply" button at the top right of the Rambert page; type or copy and paste your comments into the posting box; when you are ready, then press the "Add Reply" button. If you want to edit your posting, you can do so by clicking on the "paper and pencil" icon at the right above your post.

Don't worry if you've never written about dance before. Just tell us your reaction to any aspects of the evening, whether good or not. The Rambert staff are keen to have your feedback and, if appropriate, will reply here.

It’s survival of the fittest Technique isn’t everything in dance. All-round physical fitness is becoming increasingly important for companies trying to keep up with the demands of modern performance, as Senay Boztas discovers when she visits the rehearsal rooms of the Rambert company. In The Sunday Times (Scotland)

Angela Towler is making a “fake neck” — left arm stretched high and face tilted, she is trying to capture the attitude of a wife who is unhappy in her marriage but who lifts up her head and smiles through her teeth. There are another 21 bodies around her in the same pose, loose Lycra dance clothes draped around taught muscles. Renato Peroni, their Brazilian instructor, who likes to describe ballet moves with stories such as the “fake neck” wife, looks on approvingly.

Every day begins for dancers at Rambert Dance Company with a 90-minute class, at the top of their 1970s studio in west London. Britain’s oldest and largest contemporary dance troupe regularly sells out in Scotland and around the world with its repertoire of new and established modern pieces, showing off their eye-watering flexibility, speed, beauty and power.

After eight and a half years in the post, Christopher Bruce formally retired as Artistic Director of Rambert Dance Company on November 14. He had been associated with the company for over 40 years and the performance that night, at Sadler’s Wells, was dedicated to him. Afterwards, Bruce was joined on stage by colleagues from every department of Rambert to honour him while Linda Wilkinson, Chair of Amnesty International UK, presented him with an Honorary Life Membership of Amnesty International in recognition of his achievements in the field of dance and human rights. Many of his works, most notably Ghost Dances, incorporate themes of poverty, persecution and abuse of human rights. We publish here the message which was sent by Norman Morrice, who was unable to be present, and which traces Bruce’s career from the time when Dame Marie, with typical foresight, recognised “a very special boy”.

Very best wishes to all at Rambert Dance Company as they kick off their 2003 Spring tour today in Truro's Hall for Cornwall. The latest news from this 1000 seater theatre is that there are very few tickets left for Wednesday and Thursday evenings and limited availability for the Thursday matinee. So if you want to see Rambert in Truro, the message is - pick up the phone now.

I enjoyed both these contrasted works when I saw them in London. "Ground Level Overlay" is a striking, abstract work. Here's what Judith Mackrell thought about it in The Guardian:

Quote:

There's one sequence of couples tilting and stepping with elegant decorum around each other that you start to read as a courtly dance, another where three men spin through angled leaps with the vaulting certainty of warriors. Cunningham's inventive mind is as busy here as in all his work, but the tenor of the choreography seems especially grand and serene. And even during moments of entrancing beauty, it doesn't pause to preen. The pure logic of the movement never snags on a moment of empty decoration, and the skilled, intent performances of Rambert's dancers are scrupulously free of narcissism or display.

and her comments on Lindsey Kemp's "The Parade's Gone By":

Quote:

The scenario is classic Kemp: a deranged old film director makes movies in his head using a chaotically mangled cast of dead stars. Valentino flirts with Dietrich, who is killed off by a jealous starlet in a death scene of rococo hamminess. Pickford plays Beauty to a pantomime Beast but, just as she finds her Prince, is set upon by a rampaging Bela Lugosi Dracula.

The material lends itself naturally to Kempian excesses: deliriously bad jokes, heroic cliches, shameless cribbing. But the best parts are not so much Hollywood as Petipa, with Kemp sending Beauty and the Beast through a mad 19th-century ballet of his own devising.

It's difficult to imagine two more different ballets than these. Ground Level Overlay has amazing music and I liked the variety of the groups of dancers, although I was a bit puzzled by it. It looks very hard to do.

The Parade's Gone By was an over-the-top riot with lots of good laughs and brilliant costumes. It looked as though the dancers had as much fun as we did.

The Rambert tour moves on to Suffolk this Friday and Saturday with a bill of two longer ensemble works and two shorter pieces. As far as I understnad this will be the last performance for a while of Cunningham's "Ground Level Overlay". I met Mark Baldwin at the Akram Khan performance at Laban and Mark told me that he considers "Ground..." a masterpiece. Difficult to argue with that in my view, as long as one doesn't expect narrative or overt emotion. It's all about geometry and pure movement. Rambert are one of the few companies, outside of Cunningham's own, who perform his technically challenging works.

Here's a reminder of the details for the Suffolk venue. If anyone sees the performances, do drop us a line. See the second post at the top of this topic for details of our easy and painless registration process.

I was curious, jfoote, as to why you thought it wasn't a serious program? I haven't seen Rambert since they last came to the US, but it sounded like an interesting bill with "Ground Level Overlay" on it.

I do find it interesting that Mark Baldwin isn't bringing much of his own work into the rep for now. His comment in the CD interview about finding the direction for the company rep and then beginning to work from there seems unusual. On the other hand, it's nice to see an artistic director taking over who doesn't feel he has to immediately bend the company to his own will.

Hi mehunt! Good to see you here. This Spring tour was planned under Christopher Bruce, so the Autumn tour will be the first with Mark Baldwin's selection of repertoire. It will certainly be interesting to see his choices, but as you point out from his interview, it may well be some time before we see his own work danced by the Company.

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests

You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot post attachments in this forum